Woods loses title

Clinton Woods's reign as a world champion ended with a whimper in Tampa last night as he was completely outboxed by Antonio Tarver, who took his IBF light-heavyweight title with a unanimous points decision.

At 39, the American looked there for the taking, but Woods barely took him outside his comfort zone. Instead Woods mostly stood in front of him, allowing Tarver to work away with cluster of punches, few of which carried much weight, but many of which landed.

In a very cagey opening round, Tarver made most of the running and landed with one decent uppercut, while Woods kept his powder dry behind a high guard. He came forward more in the second round, but still stood off and let Tarver box at a slow pace.

Things did not really improve in the third and, while Tarver was not getting through with hard punches, he was doing more than the Yorkshireman. If anything, Tarver seemed to be finding his feet in the fourth. The American landed a short left hook and then caught Woods with a three-punch combination, but there was little action and the crowd booed the end of the round.

Woods came forward more in the fifth and at least made Tarver work harder, but Tarver threw more punches and landed more, catching Woods with two good left hooks. In the sixth, Tarver was throwing party- punches from odd angles and they were landing.

Woods at least began the seventh with some purpose, forcing Tarver back into a corner. He also landed a decent body shot, but failed to follow it up, too often standing still in front of Tarver where he was an easy target. The eighth, ninth and tenth followed a familiar theme, Woods plodding after Tarver and not throwing enough punches. Tarver threw plenty of punches, if little with much power.

But it was Tarver who stepped things up in the eleventh, catching Woods with two fierce left crosses that have him backing off into the ropes. He tried to fire back with a sustained burst, but few punches landed. Tarver again stepped things up in the final round and was teeing off against Woods who looked terrible one-paced. At the final bell, Tarver turned away with his arms in the air. Woods puts his gloves on his hips and looked dejected.

Steve Marshall, of Australia, scored it 116-112, John Rupert, of Florida, scored it 117-111, while Howard Foster, of Doncaster, scored it 119-109, which matched my scorecard.

"I fought the best light-heavyweight in the world," Woods said. "I'm just a skinny boy from Sheffield and I never dreamed of things like this. All credit to Tarver he did a fantastic job. I'm happy with my career I never believed I have would have achieved the things I have."

 

"It's all about the belts," Tarver said. "I want all the beltholders."

The bout was one of two world light-heavyweight title bouts on the bill. In the other, Chad Dawson retained his WBC title with a unanimous points decision over Glen Johnson in a genuine thriller.

All three judges scored it 116-112 to the 25-year-old champion, which seemed very generous.

Johnson, 39, who has boxed Woods three times and Tarver twice, had the better highlight moments in the bout, particularly in the tenth round, when Dawson was repeatedly rocked. Dawson, who moves well and threw decent combinations, showed plenty of guts to fire back when hurt, but Johnson was aggrieved at the verdict.

"At 39 years of age, I can't believe they'd rip me off like that," he said.

Comments

[Ron Lewis]

I have to agree Phill. After six rounds I turned to a colleague at ringside and said I thought it was the least inspired world title defence I had ever seen. He then won the seventh on my card, but that was the only round I gave him. A very disappointing display and I thought he was capable of much better, although only me and Spencer Oliver of the British media here that I spoke to about it were saying Tarver would do it.

[Phill Arrowsmith]

I hate to say I told you so Ron but when you were doing the run down of best British boxers I disagreed with you that Clinton was 'more than a lucky champ in a poor division'. In the early hours of this morning I'm sorry to say he proved me right. Clinton was worse than poor and, just like against Jones all those years ago, seemed happy just to be there in Tarver's company. That's not what great champions are made of. This was as inept a world title defence as I have ever seen. I hope Calzaghe can make it third time lucky for us next week!